BRITAIN should slash payments to Brussels and spend the money on caring for the elderly here at home instead, it has been claimed.

Cash from the bloated EU budget should be used to end the scandal of older people being forced to sell their homes to pay for care, senior Tory MPs demanded.

In an unprecedented move, the leaders of three Tory heartland councils have written to David Cameron calling on him to implement the recommendations of the Dilnot Commission, which proposed a cap on an individual’s care payments.

They told him bluntly: “In a civilised society, providing for our hard-working elderly and vulnerable should be a Government’s top priority. Dilnot provides the solution.”

The estimated £1.7billion cost of the ­Dilnot reforms could be funded out of Britain’s £15.8billion-a-year contribution to EU ­coffers, a figure which is set to rise to £19.2billion by 2015. Alternatively, the council leaders suggest slashing Britain’s foreign aid budget to its 2010 level of £8.5billion instead of raising it as the Coalition plans. That would free up £3.5billion.

Ensuring multinational companies paid full corporation tax on their British activities could yield up to £4billion.

In a demonstration of the growing scale of discontent at the way the elderly are being penalised, Kent county council leader Paul Carter has posted a petition on the Downing Street website to galvanise public support for change.

It urges the Government to commit to implementing Dilnot’s year-old recommendations by 2015. The commission, established by the Coalition, recommended a lifetime cap of between £35,000 and £50,000 on what anyone should have to pay for their care.

It also proposed raising the threshold of assets, including someone’s home, above which they do not qualify for state help from £23,500 to £100,000.

But supporters fear the recommendations have been kicked into the long grass.

In their letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Carter and fellow Tory shire county council leaders Martin Tett, of Buckinghamshire, and Ken Thornber, of Hampshire, wrote: “Day by day, hardworking families in need of intensive social care support, who have never received any state benefit during their lifetime, are losing their hard-earned life savings and homes.”

Mr Carter told the Daily Express yesterday: “The £1.7billion cost of introducing this is affordable and it should be a priority for the Government.

There is no doubt capping costs is the best model

Jeremy Hunt

“Dilnot provides a very elegant solution. The Government could pick up the excess of costs over £35,000 and the insurance industry could help support those who want to plan for their old age.

“There are hard-working families with modest savings who have never fallen back on state benefits who are potentially losing their inheritance for their children and grandchildren. I don’t think that’s fair.

“The Government haven’t said they won’t do it from 2015. This initiative is just to try to accelerate the decision-making process in Whitehall.” It is estimated that at least 20,000 pensioners a year have to sell their homes to meet care costs and a quarter of over-65s will need residential care at some point.

The Government has indicated it accepts the principle of the Dilnot blueprint but cannot agree how it should be funded.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said last night: “There is no doubt capping costs is the best model. The key question is how to fund it sensibly, given the current deficit. We are looking at how to achieve this.”

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PAULINE Turner visited her late mother Annie Kennedy's memorial on Boxing Day to make a solemn vow - to fight to end the injustice of old people being forced to sell their homes to pay for care.

Annie, who died in October aged 90, had Alzheimer's and ended her days in a private nursing home. Her fees over five years cost £100,000.

To meet them her bungalow home had to be sold for £140,000 to buy an annuity. Mrs Turner, 68, said: "We never told mum we were selling the bungalow. It would have broken her heart to know everything she worked for was going to the state."

Mrs Turner, of Margate, Kent, backs the idea of cutting the foreign aid budget to cap care costs. "We send far too much money out of the country. This is crazy. Why aren't we looking after our own people?" she said.